1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communicating exercise routines to exercise users.
2. Background Art
People perform a variety of exercise routines such as yoga, stretching, weightlifting, Pilates, Tai Chi, aerobics, etc. An exercise routine includes a sequence of exercises which are associated with some sort of duration such as a period of time in which a person is to perform an exercise, a number of breaths the person is to breathe while performing an exercise, a set of repetitions of an exercise the person is to perform, etc.
As an example, a yoga exercise routine includes a sequence of yogic exercises (i.e., asanas) such as a pigeon pose asana and a cobra pose asana. The asanas are associated with time periods in which the person is to hold the body positions. For example, the person is to hold the pigeon pose for twenty seconds and then hold the cobra pose for thirty seconds. Alternatively, the asanas are associated with a number of breaths that the person is to breathe while performing the asanas. In this case, the number of breaths define the time period in which the person is to hold the body pose. For example, the pigeon pose asana is associated with five breaths instead of being associated with a twenty second time period. As such, the person holds the pigeon pose until the person has taken five breaths. The asanas may be separated by a rest period such as one minute to allow the person to rest between asanas. Thus, the person rests for one minute after holding the pigeon pose before assuming the cobra pose.
As another example, a weightlifting exercise routine includes a sequence of weightlifting exercises such as a bench press exercise of ten bench press repetitions at 150 lbs. and an arm curl exercise of eight arm curl repetitions at 40 lbs. Thus, a person bench presses 150 lbs. ten times and then arm curls 40 lbs. eight times. The exercises may be associated with a time period in which the repetitions are to be performed. For example, each repetition of an exercise is allocated a certain time period (such as 5 seconds) in which the repetition is to be performed. Again, the exercises may be separated by a rest period such as two minutes to allow the person to rest between exercises. Thus, the person rests for two minutes after bench pressing before arm curling.
In a like manner, other types of exercise routines include a sequence of exercises. As described above, exercise routines share a common trait in that they include a sequence or series of exercises that are to be done a certain number of times and/or during a certain duration. In its basic form, an exercise routine includes a sequentially arranged series of exercise instructions or commands such as “Do ‘A’ for 1 minute”, “Do ten repetitions of ‘B’”, “Do ‘C’ while taking five breaths”, “Do ‘D’ for 2 minutes” etc., where ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ represent respective exercises and “D” represents a resting event. Accordingly, an exercise routine may be changed by modifying or deleting its instructions, by changing the sequential order of its instructions, by adding additional instructions, etc. Similarly, an exercise routine is created by arranging a sequence of exercise instructions.
The exercises included in an exercise routine for a person may be based on input from the person, exercise peers, fitness instructors, fitness literature, video and audio fitness programming, physicians and physical therapists, and the like. As such, persons may have their own customized exercise routines.
A person performing a customized exercise routine generally has an idea of which exercises to perform and in what order to perform the exercises. The person may refer to a paper having the instructions (for example, “Do ‘A’”, “Rest for a minute”, “Do ‘B’”, etc.) written down. The person may refer to examples illustrating proper performance of the exercises. The person may look at a watch or clock while exercising to ensure that the exercises are performed in allotted durations. A problem with this approach is that the person effectively has two roles: an exerciser and an exercise instructor. That is, while performing the exercises (i.e., acting in the role of an exerciser), the person keeps track of which exercises have been performed and which are to be performed, monitors the exercise durations, memorizes or knows the order of the exercises, accesses literature illustrating proper performance of the exercises, and the like (i.e., acting in the role of an exercise instructor).
An entity that handles the role of an exercise instructor is a human fitness instructor. A person is able to focus on the role of an exerciser while performing an exercise routine with a human fitness instructor directing or guiding the person through the exercise routine. However, problems with this approach are that fitness instructors are relatively costly to many exercisers and may not be available at times desired by exercisers, many exercisers prefer to exercise in relative solitude without any perceived or actual intrusions by other people, many exercisers prefer to exercise in their own homes as opposed to fitness clubs having fitness instructors, many exercisers do not have time to meet with fitness instructors, etc.
It would be desirable for an entity other than a human fitness instructor and other than a person performing a customized exercise routine to handle the role of an exercise instructor while the person performs the exercise routine such that the person focuses on the role of an exerciser without handling exercise instructor responsibilities. It would be further desirable if the person or another entity such as a human fitness instructor creates the customized exercise routine by providing text indicative of exercise instructions to the exercise instructor entity such that the exercise instructor entity handles the exercise instructor responsibilities for any customized exercise routine created from text.